


Hollow Knight Theories and Headcanons

by thebooklord15



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Other, just my theories and head/heartcanons, please comment I want to discuss the bugs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-12 03:15:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29378361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebooklord15/pseuds/thebooklord15
Summary: Basically a place where I can dump my headcanons/heartcanons and theories that don't have a place in my Hollow Knight fics. Feel free to use them in your own stuff, just don't label it as your own idea. Cause that's just mean.
Relationships: (yet) - Relationship, None
Comments: 11
Kudos: 17





	1. What the Nosk reveals about Ghost's character arc

The Nosk. Everyone's favorite shapeshifting monster from Deepnest.

Despite it's notoriety as one of the creepiest bosses in the game, it actually doesn't get discussed that much. This is probably because the game itself already gives us a good deal of information about it through dreamnail dialogue from corpses, the hunter's journal and both of the Nosk's boss fights. (And _yes_ , we're going to be talking about the god-home fight as well.)

Before we dive into my speculations about this boss, and what it reveals about our protagonist Ghost, let's review what we already know about our horrifying friend.

1\. It lives in Deepnest, and judging by the amount of prey strung up in it's lair it lives there _comfortably_. That alone attests to it's adaptability and survival skills as a predator.

2\. It takes a form familiar to it's victims in order to trick them into following it. We know this because of the aforementioned dreamnail dialogue. We're not really sure how it's able to achieve this feat.

3\. Some of them have wings, as we see in the godhome fight. I'm not sure if this is supposed to imply that there is another sub-species of Nosk capable of flight, or if that was just to up the fight's difficulty. You can decide that one for yourself.

And assuming that there isn't anything I'm forgetting, that's pretty much all we have to go in from canon. If I left anything out, please let me know down in the comments.

Now for a short review on what we know about Ghost.

1\. They've spent most of their life wandering the Wastes. Based on dreamnail dialogue from a corpse and the edge of the wastes, the lore tablet in the Howling Cliffs, and Quirrel's persistent amnesia, we can safely assume that Ghost has no memory of their past. They don't know who they are, where they're from, or why they're being called to Hallownest.

2\. They are _not_ truly empty. I know that White Lady tries to tell us the opposite, but she thought the same thing about THK, and look how _that_ turned out. My take on Ghost as a character is a whole other spiel, so just know that we're going into this with the idea that none of the vessels were truly hollow.

There's definitely a whole bunch more that can be said about Ghost, but as I said that's a whole other chapter.

Now for what you're _really_ here to see; _What I think_ _the Nosk boss fights reveal about Ghost._

This theory is kinda weird, so I'll just go ahead and say it.

I think that both Nosk fights represent Ghost's arc as a character.

Here's my reasoning. The first encounter we have with the Nosk, it uses our own face to lure us. This represents Ghost's whole reason for answering THK's call; to find themselves and rediscover their past. Nosk obviously has some form of mind-reading ability (how _else_ would it know what form to take?) and it picked up on this desire. The fact that this particular form is the one the Nosk chose is intriguing to me. If it had disguised itself as another of our friends like Cloth or Quirrel we would have followed it just the same. To me, that just reveals how important finding their identity is to Ghost.

The second encounter (godhome) was the nail in the coffin for me. Instead of taking the form of our face, the Nosk it uses _Hornet_ 's face to disguise itself. This symbolizes the end of Ghost's first journey. By this point we've more than likely already done the true ending, acquired the Voidheart and visited the Abyss. They've been through hell and back to find themselves, and now that they've done that, their goals have changed. They've already found their identity, the thing they wanted most. With that they've also found something they didn't expect; a family.

Hornet is their half-sister. They've fought against her, they've grieved with her, and in the end they've fought alongside her. And THK, their sibling, the one who called them back in the first place. Not to mention all the friends they made and lost along the way. Ghost isn't trying to defeat Radiance just because they were _made_ to. They're trying to stop her because now they've found a _reason_ to. 

Again, the Nosk picked up on this, and that manifested into it showing them Hornet's face. It likely picked Hornet because Ghost's bond with her is the deepest one they've forged.

I'm very interesting on hearing your thoughts about this theory, and hearing any other theories you guys have about Nosk. Please leave a comment down below; I respond to them all!

Thanks for reading! <3


	2. Headcanon: The Background statues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A silly headcanon of mine involving the background statues and their origins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is very silly, but I figured I'd share it anyways.

You probably haven't given the breakable statues in the game much thought (other than how inexplicably _fun_ it is to destroy them), but they've always made me curious. Are they markers of civilization? Just artwork? Something else entirely? We may never know the true answer to this conundrum, so I've decided to come up with my own.

My headcanon: These statues are some of first pieces of sculpture that the civilization of Hallownest created. They are likely reflections of the artists desire to know more about themselves (or maybe they represent the way they _already_ saw themself). Upon seeing these crude, childlike attempts at art, The Pale King was filled with pride for how far his people had come. So, much like a parent displaying their child's artwork on the refrigerator, he placed the structures all throughout Dirtmouth and the Crossroads. That way they would be one of the first things that any newcomers see.

As time passed and painters and sculptures alike began to refine their work, the King still made efforts to appraise their work, but found that those first creations would always be his favorite.

Like I said, this is very, _very_ silly. But this fandom needs all the lighthearted content it can get.


End file.
